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5 May 2015
Brief

State Capacity to Support School Turnaround

Courtney Tanenbaum, Andrea Boyle, and Cheryl Graczewski, AIR
Susanne James-Burdumy, Lisa Dragoset, and Kristin Hallgren, Mathematica Policy Research

One objective of the U.S. Department of Education’s School Improvement Grants and Race to the Top program is to help states enhance their capacity to support the turnaround of low-performing schools. This capacity may be important, given how difficult it is to produce substantial and sustained achievement gains in low-performing schools. There is limited existing research on the extent to which states have the capacity to support school turnaround and are pursuing strategies to enhance that capacity.

This brief documents states’ capacity to support school turnaround as of spring 2012 and spring 2013. It examines capacity issues for all states and for those that reported both prioritizing turnaround and having significant gaps in expertise to support it.

Key findings, based on interviews with administrators from 49 states and the District of Columbia, include the following:

  • More than 80 percent of states made turning around low-performing schools a high priority, but at least 50 percent found it very difficult to turn around low-performing schools.
  • Thirty-eight states (76 percent) reported significant gaps in expertise for supporting school turnaround in 2012, and that number increased to 40 (80 percent) in 2013.
  • More than 85 percent of states reported using strategies to enhance their capacity to support school turnaround, with the use of intermediaries decreasing over time and the use of organizational or administrative structures increasing over time.
  • States that reported both prioritizing school turnaround and having significant gaps in expertise to support it were no more likely to report using intermediaries than other states, but all 21 of these states reported having at least one organizational or administrative structure compared with 86 percent (25 of 29) of all other states.
State Capacity to Support School Turnaround

Related Projects

Project

Study of School Turnaround

The U.S. Department of Education has invested substantial funds in turning around the nation’s lowest performing schools and has contracted with AIR to examine how schools’ receiving federal school improvement grants (SIGs) are changing over time.

Related Work

5 May 2015
News Release

New Brief by AIR, Mathematica Experts Examines States’ Capacity to Support Turnaround in Low-Performing Schools

A new research brief released by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences documents states’ capacity to support school turnaround as of spring 2012 and spring 2013. The brief, the result of a collaboration between experts at AIR and Mathematica Policy Research, found that at least three-quarters of states reported having “significant gaps” in expertise to support turning around low-performing schools.
5 Oct 2014
Brief

Operational Authority, Support, and Monitoring of School Turnaround

In recent years, there has been an increased focus on turning around our nation’s low-performing schools, with substantial investments from the U.S. Department of Education into new and continuing awards under the federal School Improvement Grants (SIG) program. This brief focuses on the implementation of SIG by examining three interrelated levers for school improvement: school operational authority, state and district support for turnaround, and state monitoring of turnaround efforts.
Topic: 
Education, District and School Improvement

Further Reading

  • New Brief by AIR, Mathematica Experts Examines States’ Capacity to Support Turnaround in Low-Performing Schools
  • What Are States Doing to Bring Up All Their Schools?
  • School Improvement Grants: Implementation and Effectiveness
  • Race to the Top: Implementation and Relationship to Student Outcomes
  • American Institutes for Research Experts Coauthor Brief Examining Schools Receiving Federal School Improvement Grants
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Topic

Education
District and School Improvement

RESEARCH. EVALUATION. APPLICATION. IMPACT.

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